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Monday, 26 July 2010

The vernacular strikes again. "Experts Break New Ground in Traditional Cultural Expression Talks" is the title of a media release from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) which, as the name suggests, indicates that discussions on traditional cultural expression have taken some fresh turns. Apart from the inference that you can get some decent talks going when you have (i) fewer people in the discussion, (ii) these people being experts and (iii) who are speaking in their individual capacities rather than as on-the-record representatives, this item is interesting for something else. It is, the IPKat thinks, the first time the phrase "nitty-gritty" has been employed in a WIPO news release. Merpel wonders how this idiom is rendered in other official languages of the world's premier IP organisation. Can readers advise?

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"Nitty Gritty" is a traditional cultural expression originating from the United States (being a verbal expression, poetry, the product of communal creative intellectual activity, culturally characteristic, and used by the community - Article 1).

I trust WIPO intends to identify the US as the source of this cultural expression - Article 3(b)(i).

For French, the 2000 edition of "Collins Robert Concise" renders "to get down to the nitty-gritty" as "passer aux choses sérieuses" [= moving on to more serious/important matters], while the 1986 Harrap's renders n-g as "(fin) fond (d'une affaire)"[= getting to the bottom of something]. Either could be appropriate depending on the context.